


dreams

by dregsghafa



Series: from eden [2]
Category: From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series
Genre: Angst, F/M, idk rlly they r all just suffering i guess, when will seth stay for like 5 seconds idk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-01
Updated: 2018-04-01
Packaged: 2019-04-16 18:11:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14170635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dregsghafa/pseuds/dregsghafa
Summary: “Kate, what are you dreaming of?”It takes an eternity for her to answer but he’s used to it. He takes a long drag; he waits.





	dreams

**Author's Note:**

> it didn't feel like a next chapter so i made it into a series. i hope it isn't bad haha.

     “I don’t forgive you,” Kate mumbles, eyes darting beneath her closed eyelids, her lips parted innocently. In the yellow lamplight, what little brown she had left in her hair completely disappears. Richie hates how mesmerized he is by the sight.

     He’s half-sitting on the bed next to her, legs outstretched before him, the cartoon film on the television completely forgotten.  Kate mumbles again and his eyes begin to burn, he hasn’t blinked for minutes, he doesn’t really want to.

     Seth audibly stirs on the couch for a long time before he sighs and pushes himself up. The pale yellow light overhead casts shadows over his eyes, makes his cheeks look hollow. He looks like the little ornaments scattered around the room: dull, tired, stagnant.

Seth meets Richie’s gaze the same time Kate speaks. Richie sees the way his neck tightens and his jaw locks before he regains himself. He folds his arm in front of his chest in an unspoken challenge. They hold each other’s gazes for a moment, Richie studying his brother’s reaction and Seth not used to backing down.

His brother breaks it before he gets up from the couch, opens the door and heads outside, he follows suit.

He falls behind Seth a few paces and Seth peaks behind him, rolling his eyes.

“What do you want, Richie?” his voice is a mix of annoyance and the usual arrogance.

“Where’re you going?” he asks and it surprises him how genuine it is.

Seth has been routinely disappearing during moments like these for the past couple months since they’ve been on the road. It didn’t really bother Richie in the beginning, even when it was just the two of them he’d be gone for hours, never to be seen till morning sometimes at noon. When the reason of Seth’s constant disappearance became clear to Richie, he began to observe from a distance the silent and less than elegant dance he and Kate performed when Seth did come back. Richie was never exceptionally receptive of tension in the air is budding into a fucking hurdle.

“What,” his voice rises defensively. “You going to follow me?”

“Already am.”

“I don’t think leaving her is a good idea.”

“Then why are you doing it?”

Seth turns around then. Long, angry strides and his pointer finger aimed at Richie.

“You,” he says poking his finger in Richie’s chest like he wants to pierce through the muscle. “Don’t know shit. I don’t give a fuck if playing shrink is your new hobby, leave me out of it.”

Richie holds up both his hands in surrender but he makes sure his face says anything but. It’s mocking, amused, he can tell Seth wants snarl or scream or rip his fucking head off.

When he comes back to the motel room, Kate is the first thing he sees, a safe distance from the door. He knows she didn’t hear any of it, not even close but her eyes say it all. _She knows._

“Can’t sleep?” he asks, her eyebrows pull together further. “Do you need a lullaby? Some milk maybe?”

She scoffs dryly, folds her arms over her chest and begins to walk back to her bed. 

\---

It’s just a graze.

 He can still feel the way the bullet glided over his arm and broke skin. It’s just a graze, he’s going to heal as soon as he feeds but it’s bleeding like crazy and stings like a bitch.

Never mind that Seth left his post when Kate asked where he went off to last night- of all the times- just to tell her that it’s a place only big people can go to. Even with the stethoscope in his ear, he could still feel the ounce of venom Seth mixed with the words. Enough to get her off his back.

But she didn’t.

It was a blur really the safe opened to him like any other then he heard a shot, felt something wet on the arm of his coat. He glanced towards where it came from, there’s a security guard with a shaky grip on his gun but he’s smart because he shot the guy that was opening the vault. He could’ve gotten away with it if he had better aim.

Richie gathered what he could and put it in the bag Kate threw at him, shoved his stethoscope in it as well and when he reached for the gun at his back, there’s the sting and a spreading wetness. On the coat of his sleeve is a budding stain of blood, making the black fabric even darker.

_It’s just a graze_ , he says to himself while breathing through clenched teeth in the passenger’s side. It just really _fucking_ stings.

Seth’s eyes are firmly on the road, trying hard to ignore what his mistake caused. Richie meets Kate’s concerned look in the rearview. She leans forward without breaking eye contact until all Richie can see is her hair in the mirror. She outstretches her arm beside him. 

“Here,” she holds her wrist up higher. “So you can heal already.”

He looks at the soft skin on her wrist, at Seth ignoring everything that’s happening, and then at Kate who’s growing more worried and impatient by the second.

Richie’s lips tug at the corner, not quite a smile, not quite nothing either.

“Save it, Katie-cakes. I’ll be fine.”

\---

Kate combs her wet hair while she examines Richie’s already gone wound. Seth emerges from the bathroom, he pauses in front of the door and his eyes fall straight on Kate or her hair and he stares at her, a few seconds too long to be normal. Whatever he’s thinking, it sends him straight out of the door and it’s only mid-day.

Richie figures it’s past time to pick up another box of hair dye.

\---

He comes back with the hair dye and makes his way to their room but stops when he sees Kate on one of the chairs by the pool, bathrobe wrapped tightly around her body. Her eyes are closed but her breath is a normal pace, she’s awake.

She must’ve heard his footsteps because her entire body springs forward and her eyes see his like a light in the dark. She relaxes as he sits down on the chair next to her.

“This seems familiar,” he tells her once he’s settled. Kate stares it him like she’s looking at something past him. He knows what she’s thinking, because he feels it too, they all do.

Familiar isn’t what it used to be anymore; it feels more like a fairytale than anything else.

When Richie produces a carton of cigarettes from his coat pocket and offers her one, her smile is a slow, creeping thing. It disarms him in a way that makes his brain falter. She shakes her head, he takes one in between his lips.

“Maybe I just shouldn’t sleep,” she meant to pass it off as a joke, Richie can tell but it’s insipid.

“That’s stupid.”

“I don’t even know what I’m doing wrong,” she pauses like she’s got something caught in her throat. “Probably because I don’t think I’m doing anything wrong.”

“It’s just the way he is, Kate,” he lights the cigarette and it burns bright against the night. “He’s caught up in that self-righteous code of his.”

“He can’t even look at me for five seconds without walking away, Richie.”

“He’s coping.”

“I’m coping too,” there’s steel in her voice and much more in her eyes. “I get to be okay, too.”

Richie matches her stare. It’s still, calm, unwavering.

“Kate, what are you dreaming of?”

It takes an eternity for her to answer but he’s used to it. He takes a long drag; he waits.

“The people she killed; me, alone on the side of the road,” she pauses again and turns to him. “You.”

She’s gauging his expression. He doesn’t even flinch, she’s visibly surprised.

“You know, when I think about it,” she continues. “It all leads back to you.”

He shrugs, like he doesn’t care even when his mind plays back everything against his will. The woman, her eyes gouged out. Blood. Snakes.

“You don’t even look sorry.”

Another drag, he doesn’t let go of her gaze even as he exhales.

“Are you going to forgive me if I do?,” his tone is cool, barely louder than a whisper.

When she turns her head away from him, there’s almost shame in it.

The truth is soft when she lets the word escape her lips. Richie pretends that it’s what he was expecting to hear. Then, he’s brutally reminded that the Kate who would’ve said differently, the Richie who wouldn’t care, the Seth who wouldn’t leave, they were all gone.

“No.”

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> hit me up on tumblr! dregsghafa.tumblr.com


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